A Texas man is facing assault and hate crime charges after authorities say he brutally attacked a lesbian couple celebrating with family in Detroit on 13 July 2025.
Prosecutors allege 26-year-old William Wilson targeted the women after seeing the two same sex couples holding hands, taunting them with homophobic slurs before turning violent. Chelsi Way’s wife was knocked unconscious and later needed 20 stitches. She continues to struggle with memory loss and sleep problems from the assault.
According to witnesses, Wilson put his arms around the women while recording them on his phone and mocking their gender non conformity. When the group sought help from casino security, they say staff did nothing. The situation escalated when Wilson began throwing punches.
After the attack, Wilson and another man fled but were followed by Way for three miles, as she called police. Wilson was arrested and charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm, two counts of assault and battery, aggrevated assault, and hate crime charges. If convicted, he could face a decade or more behind bars. His alleged accomplice remains at large.
A 24-year-old woman from Naples, Chiara (not her real name) has broken her silence after years of abuse by her father, who allegedly attacked and threatened to kill her because she is a lesbian. The man, 51, is now in custody, facing charges of stalking and domestic violence.
Chiara revealed that the abuse had gone on for years, escalating recently when her father confronted her at work, calling her a disgrace and demanding she change her last name. “He said I disgusted him and wished me the worst possible death,” she said in an interview with Radio Pride.
Her decision to report him came after another violent outburst at home, where he banged on her bathroom door, threatening to kill her. Police responded swiftly and arrested the man.
Refusing to be silenced, Chiara has decided to keep her surname. She now urges others in similar situations to speak up: “You are not wrong, you are not aliens, you are not psychopaths. You haven’t killed anyone, you don’t have an addiction. You are not a problem for anyone, nor for society. We are human, like everyone else, regardless of skin color. Report, confront, and report. Even if they are of your same blood. Report. We must win this war.”
Her mother, previously silenced, has now joined her in condemning the violence.
August 2025: Cristofer Arnoldo Pino Pino was sentenced to 15 years for murdering Sandra Almeida Lizama in November 2023. The historic ruling was handed down unanimously by the Third Criminal Court of Santiago.
Claudia Castañeda, a lawyer for the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh):
“Although the family and Movilh were seeking a life sentence, the truth is that this is the first conviction for lesbophobic femicide in Chile, which sets a good precedent for minority women. In previous cases, no lesbophobic murder has ever been considered a femicide or a sexuality-based hate crime.”
“Si bien, la familia y el Movilh aspirábamos a cadena perpetua, lo cierto es que se trata de la primera condena por femicidio lesbofóbico en Chile, lo cual sienta un buen precedente para las mujeres diversas. En ocasiones anteriores, los asesinatos lesbofóbicos nunca habían sido considerados como femicidio, ni crímenes de odio en razón de la orientación sexual.”
The brutal attack occured on 27 November 2023, when Sanda was talking with a friend in the Lo Barnechea commune. Cristofer Arnoldo Pino Pino first verbally abused Sandra, using sexist and homophobic language, before kicking her to the ground. After being attacked for intervening, her friend went for help, as Cristofer Arnoldo Pino Pino went in search of a weapon, with which he bludgeoned Sandra. The brutality of the attack drew attention and one of the people who approached the scene was Sandra’s own daughter.
Sandra was taken to hospital where she died 6 days later on 2 December 2023.
The Maranhão Court of Justice has upheld the decision to send Elizeu Carvalho de Castro to a jury trial for the cruel and brutal murder of 21-year-old lesbian Ana Caroline Sousa Campelo, whose mutilated body was found on 10 December 2023, in Maranhãozinho. Prosecutors allege she was killed by asphyxiation in a hate crime after being abducted while cycling home from work. Carvalho, also known as “Bahia” or “Baiano”, denies involvement but remains in custody awaiting trial.
Two months after her death, Ana Caroline’s body was exhumed for forensic examination at the request of Maranhão’s Civil Police, after it was revealed she had been buried without an autopsy.
Her death sparked nationwide protests against lesbophobia and lesbicide, drawing condemnation from activists and government officials, including the Minister of Women Cida Gonçalves, who labeled it a case of lesbophobia and a gender-based hate crime.
Please note the following article contains upsetting details about Ana Caroline’s death.
Nguyen Xuan Truong (b. 1991) has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for (attempted) murder of Ms. Nhung (b. 1992). Truong and Ms Nhung were married in 2015 and had 3 children together, before divorcing in March 2024.
Truong suspected that Ms Nhung was in a lesbian relationship with Ms Trang (b. 1999) and that this relationhsip was the reason for their divorce.
In April 2024, Truong plotted to assault Ms Nhung and Ms Trang, buying a knife on April 8. On April 12 Truong borrowed Ms Nhung’s car and took their children to see their grandparents in his home town, packing the knife he had bought 4 days earlier. Returning on April 14, Truong was speaking to the two women while the children were taken to a nearby playground. Reportedly angry with the 2 women, Truong chased down and stabbed Ms Nhung and Ms Trang, both of whom attempted to defend themselves with pepper spray.
Once bystanders intervened to stop the attack, Truong left the scene and the victims were taken to hospital. He later handed himself in to police and confessed to his crime.
Inés Zarantonello and her partner, Analia Cóceres, reported being attacked by two neighbors who had previously used lesbophobic language. Although their attackers have already been prosecuted for serious bodily harm, they believe their lives were at risk and that the attack was premeditated, so it should at least be classified as “aggravated by gender-based hatred.”
“I can’t understand why they say they were minor injuries when he could have killed us,” says Inés Zarantonello (39), almost a month after she and her partner, Analia Cóceres (41), were attacked by two neighbors who had already used lesbophobic language. Miguel Yanes and Julián Yanes – father and son respectively – were detained for 48 hours after beating them and injuring them with a knife. Despite the restrictive measures, they cross paths with the two girls daily. They want to raise the profile of their case out of fear but also so that attacks on people from the LGTBIQNB+ community are not naturalized.
Original:
Inés Zarantonello y su pareja, Analia Cóceres relataron haber sido agredidas por dos vecinos que ya habían tenido expresiones lesboodiantes previamente. Si bien ya hay un pedido de elevación a juicio contra sus agresores, por lesiones graves, ellas consideran que su vida estuvo en riesgo, que la agresión fue premeditada, por lo que debería al menos caratularse con “agravante por odio de género”.
“No puedo entender que digan que fueron lesiones leves cuando nos podría haber matado”, dice Inés Zarantonello (39) a casi un mes de que ella y su pareja, Analia Cóceres (41), fueran agredidas por dos vecinos que ya habían tenido expresiones lesboodiantes. Miguel Yanes y julián Yanes -padre e hijo respectivamente- estuvieron 48 horas detenidos después de golpearlas y herirlas con un arma blanca, a pesar de las medidas restrictivas se cruzan cotidianamente con las dos chicas, quieren hacer visible el caso por miedo pero también para que las agresiones a personas de la comunidad LGTBIQNB+ no sean naturalizadas.
Emma MacLean and girlfriend Tori were walking home from Emma’s birthday celebration when they passed the group of 10 men. One of them made a sexually degrading comment towards Emma so Tori stood up for her saying ‘hey, that’s my girlfriend.’
He continued making offensive and homophobic remarks at the couple before they were set upon by the group. Emma told CTV News: ‘I see Tori being pushed on the stairs right in front of the BMO Centre, and they are cement stairs, and she’s on her back – that’s when all the men started punching and kicking her.
Afghanistan is a country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death under Sharia law. This law has been enforced in the past via the former Republic government of Afghanistan penal code[1], and there are reports of LBQ individuals being targeted and subjected to violence and discrimination. In addition, women in Afghanistan face significant gender-based violence and discrimination and at times are subject to the death sentence. In fact, the situation has exacerbated for LBQ individuals.
The Taliban’s takeover of the country has further worsened the situation for LBQ individuals in Afghanistan. The interpretation of the Sharia law made by the Taliban is particularly harsh, and they have a history of targeting LBQ individuals. The Taliban’s treatment of LBQ individuals has been documented by human rights organizations, with reports of LBQ individuals being executed or subjected to brutal punishments, including stoning and whipping.
Fatima, a 26-year-old lesbian, has an uncle who is a prominent religious leader allied with the Taliban. From the moment the Taliban has returned to power, “the world has become a dark abyss for me that is trying to swallow my dreams, my happiness, my peace, my achievements, my education, my job,” says Fatima. At the time she was working in a local university, but was forced out of her job and replaced by a man who is a Taliban loyalist.
In 14 days there were four attacks and attempted attacks on lesbians in Argentina. They occurred after President Javier Milei’s speech in Davos , in which he made a hateful LGBT+ speech full of misinformation. They also occurred in weeks marked by the Antifascist and Antiracist Pride March . They are people who openly show their identity: feminist activists, a couple who walked hand in hand, another who lived in a home and even one woman returning from an assembly prior to the massive march on Saturday, February 1. Many are in a precarious housing situation. In some cases, violence had already been been accompanied by insults and threats.
The escalation of attacks in the last two weeks still brings to mind the triple lesbian murder in Barracas on May 5, 2024. Then, as now, disinformation speeches against sexual diversity set the media agenda and contributed to a violent context. Before the attack that ended the lives of Andrea, Pamela and Roxana and seriously injured Sofía, Justo Barrientos had repeatedly insulted them, alluding to the victims’ sexual orientation, and had threatened to kill them. One day, he made it happen.
12 February 2025 A 32-year-old lesbian activist, Mariana Oliver, known as “Nina”, was brutally attacked in her home in the city of Oran. A man entered her home and stabbed her seven times in an attempted murder.
According to the Panambi feminist collective, to which Oliver belongs, the attack was an attempted lesbicide and they reported that the aggressor, Juan Marcelo Córdoba, had been harassing several members of the group on social media.
This is not the first attack that Oliver has suffered, as in 2021 he was also the victim of an attack due to his identity. The attacker was arrested and the arraignment hearing is expected to take place.
“Homosexuality has once again become a focus of debate among the political classes in Senegal, where newly appointed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has alternately claimed that homosexuality is tolerated in the nation, and advocated for harsher criminalization of same-sex intimacy.
Senegal lesbians and gays already face penalties for same-sex intimacy, with up to 5 years’ imprisonment and fines of 1.5 million CFA francs (approximately U.S $2,500), making advocacy for LGBTQ rights extremely difficult.”
Awa (pseudonym): I’m the president of a women’s association [Editor’s note: for security reasons, the name of the organisation is being withheld] in Dakar and I can say that in the current political and social climate in Senegal, lesbians, although invisible in the public debate, are often exposed to corrective rape at an early age.
Very often, when a family suspects that a young girl is a lesbian, she is taken by force to a marabout who, far from giving her a religious education, will rape her. This does not happen all the time, or in all social contexts, but in rural Senegal it is far from rare.
Then there is the psychological reconstruction work that needs to be undertaken, with a lot of listening, tact and solidarity towards young women who arrive in Dakar weakened and traumatised when they have managed to escape from their family environment, after several years of forced marriages. In that sense, nothing has changed, despite the passing years.”
“Lesbians and queer women in Haiti are living in fear after notorious gang leader Krisla, who is believed to be behind numerous heinous kidnappings, expressly threatened to target lesbian teenagers in the southern Port-au-Prince suburbs of Fontamara and Tibwa in a series of voice recordings on social media.
These threats have arrived in a deteriorated security situation amid gang rivalry in the capital, while the United Nations-funded police mission that was welcomed by Haitian authorities is struggling to restore order.”
“Although homosexuality is not penalized in Haiti, Krisla says he would like to see it de facto outlawed in the areas under his control, especially if it involves female homosexuality. Moreover, he adds that girls need to be watched more than boys, in order to reinforce gender norms on them.”
Higui speaks after being acquitted of manslaughter, having defended herself during a brutal and traumatic attack and attempted corrective rape.
On October 16, 2016, Argentinian woman Eva Analía De Jesús, better known as Higui, was walking through the Buenos Aires town of Bella Vista when a group of men attacked her because of her sexual orientation. Higui — who was given that nickname because she was a soccer player and had curls like the Colombian René Higuita — told the police and later the judges that her attackers beat her and tried to rape her. “I’m going to make you feel like a woman…a lesbian,” Cristian Rubén Espósito told her, according to his account. She took out a knife and plunged it into his chest. She fainted and when she regained consciousness she was arrested. Despite the fact that she reported an attempted corrective gang rape and that she was found unconscious by police officers, with torn clothing and numerous injuries from beating, her allegations were never investigated. She was charged with simple murder and spent almost eight months in jail. This Thursday she was aquitted. (Translated)
El 16 de octubre de 2016, la argentina Eva Analía De Jesús, más conocida como Higui, caminaba por la localidad bonaerense de Bella Vista cuando un grupo de hombres la atacó debido a su orientación sexual. Higui —a quien le pusieron ese apodo por ser futbolista y tener rulos como el colombiano René Higuita— contó ante la policía y después ante los jueces que sus agresores la golpearon e intentaron violarla. “Te voy a hacer sentir mujer, forra, lesbiana”, le dijo Cristian Rubén Espósito, según su relato. Ella sacó una navaja y se la clavó en el pecho. Se desvaneció y cuando recuperó la conciencia estaba detenida. A pesar de que ella denunció un intento de violación grupal correctiva y que fue encontrada inconsciente por los policías, con la ropa rota y numerosos golpes, sus acusaciones nunca se investigaron. Fue acusada de homicidio simple y pasó casi ocho meses encarcelada, pero este jueves un tribunal dictó su absolución. (Original)
Nohemí Medina Martínez and Yulizsa Ramírez were found roughly 17 miles apart from each other on a stretch of Juárez-El Porvenir Road.
The women, who were both 28-years-old and of El Paso, Texas, were discovered on 16 January the day after seeing family whom they had travelled to visit in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, El Diario reported.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Chihuahua Committee for Sexual Diversity director Karen Arvizo confirmed that the pair were parents to three children and got married last year.
Arvizo also shared their fears that, like many other crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, the killings could go unsolved.
“The concern is that authorities will absolutely do nothing,” Arvizo further explained to the outlet. “We feel like we are treated like second-class citizens and that we really don’t matter.”
Martínez and Ramírez lived in Texas, but were both Mexican citizens.
They were discovered in two separate trash bags on the streets of the Mexican border town and had reportedly been tortured, shot dead and dismembered.
ROME, NOV 9 – A 20-year-old Tunisian-Italian woman was attacked by her father after telling her parents she was gay in the Marche seaside resort of Pesaro on Saturday, Il Resto del Carlino newspaper reported Tuesday.
The woman told her 53-year-old Tunsiain father and 58-year-old Italian mother she was a lesbian and was going out with a woman, the north-central Italian daily said.
When she was getting into her girlfriend’s car outside her workplace on Saturday afternoon, her father set on her, pulled her back by the hair and slapped her twice, the paper said, while her mother insulted her.
The woman was helped by a nearby hotel clerk who took her into the building and threatened to call the police if her parents tried to come after her.
Local police have opened a probe into mistreatment in the family. (ANSA).
The Young Terrace community in Norfolk, Virginia is in devastation after a mass shooting on November 3 left three women dead, two injured, and several children traumatized from witnessing the murders first-hand — some seeing their own mothers gunned down in broad daylight — right outside their home.
Police report that Detra R. “Dee” Brown, 42, and Nicole Lovewine, 45, who were partners, came home as Lovewine’s pregnant, 19 year-old daughter, got into an argument with her boyfriend. He pulled out a gun and shot her at approximately 6:00 pm. When Brown and Lovewine came out to help, the shooter turned the gun to them and reportedly fired at both “point-blank” in the head.
Another women who was outside with her three children, Sa’idah E. Costine, 44, then ran to try and help them. The assailant shot her as well, leaving her dead. Another women was shot and wounded before the rampage came to an end.
Police have arrested Ziontay Palmer, 19, and charged him with the entire shooting after apprehending him hours after. He was dating Lovewine’s daughter, who is five months pregnant, and authorities believe a domestic dispute set off the violence, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Palmer is facing three second-degree murder charges, two malicious wounding charges, and multiple firearm charges. He is being held in Norfolk General District Court without bond.
Lovewine’s sister, Tina McPherson, told the Virginian-Pilot, “That man… put a stain on this family that can never be washed — he hurt us to the core.”
A neighbor and witness told local reporter Andy Fox that there was “nothing they could do” for Brown and Lovewine. “They were shot execution-style. They had just come home from work,” the witness said.
A fifteen year old girl has been raped by two men as punishment for suspected lesbianism in the town of Yilo Krobo in Eastern Ghana.
It was reported on Africa Feeds, that the suspects, who shared housing with the victim and her friend, confronted the girls with an allegation of lesbianism and tried to offer them money for sex. When the girls refused, the men attempted to sexually assault them. One of the girls escaped, but the other was raped a number of times by the suspects.
The fifteen year old victim reported the attack to the police and one of the suspects has been taken into custody. The other suspect has yet to be apprehended.
Currently there are a number of legislators in the country trying to pass an anti-homosexual law that states anyone who engages in sexual acts with members of the same-sex will be “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
This bill, if passed, will apply to anyone who “holds out as a lesbian, a gay, a transgender, a transsexual, a queer, a pansexual, an ally, a non-binary or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.” It will also seek to punish people who promote and/or are allies to the LGBT+ community.
THE family of a lesbian woman who was shot and killed believe her death was mostly influenced by her sexuality. Limakatso Puling, 29, was shot and killed in Avoca Hills on Tuesday night.
It is alleged Puling and a friend were walking home when they were approached by armed men who demanded their cellphones. It is believed that Puling refused to hand over her cellphone leading to one of the men shooting her in the head.
Thembeka Ngcengula, Puling’s girlfriend, said it would take her a very long time to come to terms with her loss. Not only had she lost a partner but a parent to her disabled daughter, Olwethu, she said.
Lineo Puling, Limakatso’s aunt, said the family were heartbroken. They were expecting to see her in the December holidays. She said Puling had called home a weekend before her death and told them to make arrangements for a family get-together.
“I don’t even know where to begin explaining the hurt our family, especially her grandmother, is going through. We haven’t seen her since 2018. Receiving her phone calls telling us she was coming home brought so much joy. Unfortunately, it was short-lived.”
Lineo said they were saddened that their daughter was robbed of her chance at life because of her sexuality.
“We contacted her friend who she was with when they were attacked. She told us that when Limakatso refused (to give) her phone, those men kept calling her names regarding her sexuality. The killers must be gloating that they killed a lesbian. Was she not a human being? She was a lesbian woman and didn’t deserve to be killed. I hope justice will be served one day.”
Editor’s note: We have been following this story since it first appeared. For personal reasons we were unable to post it until now. Hence why we have included all three stories.
Man “pretending to be woman” on trial for raping lesbian
A 30-year-old man is on trial for rape after he allegedly lured a lesbian to have sex with him while pretending to be a woman.
Tsang Tsz-ho, 30, is on trial in High Court today (Mon) as he appeared in front of a jury of six men and a woman.
Prosecution said Tsang got to know the victim on lesbian dating platforms Butterfly and Her. He called himself “Jan” and said he was a tomboy.
Tsang knew the victim wanted to engage in sadomasochism, and arranged to meet her on February 27, 2020 to a Kwun Tong hotel.The Standard Channel
The victim found out Tsang is a man during sex and questioned him. She repeatedly pushed him away.
She also asked him: “I don’t understand. Why do you go after lesbians?” But Tsang did not answer.
Prosecution said Tsang should know the victim wanted to leave immediately, and that she only promised to have sex because she thought Tsang was a woman.
The victim called the police on the night of incident. Prosecution alleged that Tsang knew full well that she was a lesbian but hid his own sex.
Man on trial for raping lesbian said he did not respond in time to clarify his gender
A 30-year-old man on trial for raping a lesbian while “pretending to be a woman” said he was not aware the dating platform he used is for homosexual women only.
He said he did not clarify about his gender after the lesbian called him “sister”, because he could not respond in time.
Tsang Tsz-ho, 30, pleaded not guilty to raping a woman referred as X in court when they engaged in sadomasochism on February 27, 2020 at a Kwun Tong hotel.
He called himself “Jan” and chose to describe himself as a “tomboy” on lesbian platform Butterfly. X told the court earlier that she would not have agreed to the sex if she knew he was a man.
Testifying in self defense on Monday, Tsang said he did not know Butterfly is for lesbians only.
He said he used different dating apps including Tinder, Skout and HeyMandi from 2014, which do not restrict sexual orientation.
He got to know X on Butterfly in November 2019. He said he was aware that lesbians use the app, but did not think men were banned.
As for why he chose his sexual orientation as “tomboy”, Tsang said he could not log in if he did not choose one of the options. He knew tomboy means a boyish girl.
During conversations with X, the woman called him “elder sister” but he did not clarify. Tsang said he did not respond to the message in time.
X also said she wanted to find “a girl who cares for me”. Tsang replied “I can”, and told the court that he meant he can be a person who cares for her.
Tsang also told the jury that he did not put on any make up nor got into a dress in order to pretend to be woman.
He testifed that when they were in the act, he asked X if she felt comfortable, and she said yes. He thought the answer means she agreed to the sex.
But then X asked him what was inside her body, and he found the question strange.
“I was thinking what could it be? I stopped the action,” he said.
When X started pushing him away, he thought the woman was upset because he did not wear a condom. X then told him: “You are a man? And you did not wear condom.”
Hong Kong man accused of concealing his sex to rape woman cleared of all charges
An unemployed Hong Kong man accused of concealing his sex in order to rape a woman he met on a lesbian forum has been cleared of all charges.
A High Court jury on Friday acquitted Tsang Tsz-ho, 30, after four hours of closed-door deliberations in the midst of a typhoon, which ultimately led to the postponement of all other hearings.
Tsang was found not guilty of rape by a vote of five to two, and cleared of indecent assault by a unanimous vote from the jury of six men and one woman, concluding a 10-day trial before Mr Justice Joseph Yau Chi-lap.
The NYPD is asking for help in its search for the man who attacked a young woman in the East Village because she was holding hands with her girlfriend.
On September 15, the 21-year-old woman was walking with her girlfriend near the corner of East 14th St. and 3rd avenue when the suspect began yelling anti-gay slurs at them, amNY reported.
The couple continued walking, but the suspect did not relent. Continuing to spout slurs, he approached the victim and punched her in the face before fleeing the scene. The victim was not seriously injured.
Nearly a month later, the attacker has still not been found. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force continues to investigate the incident and on Sunday, released camera footage of the suspect walking down the street.
Listening to Lesbians 